"Opening the Russian hatchery has greatly reduced travelling time to our customers which is reflected in excellent results," said American hatchery director Don Sewell. "We are losing less than 0.1 per cent of chicks on arrival at the farm, and 14-day mortality is below one per cent."

The hatchery benefits from the latest technology and well trained staff. Quality assurance officer Yulia Pavlova personally inspects all day-old chicks and ensures that they arrive at the farm after safely complying with the high quality standards set by Cobb worldwide.

She stated: "Having begun work in production, I know how important it is to have quality chicks arriving on the farm and this motivates me even more to deliver the highest quality to our customers."

Elinar broiler was the company receiving the chick that passed the 1.5 million landmark. Marina Bushueva, production director of Elinar, commented: "This is the first flock coming from Broiler Budushevo and the quality of the day-old chicks looks fine.

"I would expect a low mortality and low sexing error rate, just like the previous shipments from Cobb, and there is really no difference between the quality of chicks we’ve received from Europe and from Russia. This flock will hopefully also reach the great production results we always achieve with Cobb breeders."